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Making-up the Toraja? The Appropriation of Tourism, Anthropology, and Museums for Politics in Upland Sulawesi, Indonesia
Kathleen M. Adams Loyola University Chicago, [email protected]
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Recommended Citation Adams, K. (1995). "Making-up the Toraja? The Appropriation of Tourism, Anthropology, and Museums for Politics in Upland Sulawesi, Indonesia." Ethnology, 34(2), p. 143-153.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. © University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 1995. MAKING-UPTHE TORAJA? THE APPROPRIATIONOF TOURISM, ANTHROPOLOGY,AND MUSEUMS FOR POLITICS IN UPLAND SULAWESI, INDONESIA1
KathleenM. Adams Loyola Universityof Chicago
Overthe past fifteenyears anthropologists studying ethnic phenomena have rejected olderconceptions of culturalidentity and tradition as stable,bounded realities born out of the past, turninginstead to embracea notionof culturalidentity as a dynamic, ongoingprocess of negotiationand political contestation. As the essays in Hobsbawm and Ranger'svolume (1983) as well as recentworks by Keesing(1989), Linnekin (1983), Clifford(1988), Handler(1988), andothers have shown, traditional identities do not simplydraw on the wellspringsof the pastbut are infusedwith the politics of the present. Startingfrom the notionthat tradition is a politicalconstruction, yet anchoredin the concernwith the politics of cultureand identity,this essay examines how a hinterlandgroup of Indonesianpeople, much scrutinizedby both tourists and anthropologists,is now drawingon and manipulatingthese very global powersfor its own ends. While much has been written on the ways in which culture is manipulatedfor the consumptionof outsiders(cf. MacCannell1973; Greenwood 1989 [1977]; Cohen 1988), the focus here is on the ways in which outsidersare co- optedfor local powercontests. As this case suggests,no longercan anthropologists andtourists imagine themselves as peripheralto local constructionsof identityand power. Moreover,the literatureon ethnic tourismtends to assume that tourism inevitablybrings a loss of agencyto localpeoples. This articleproposes problematiz- ing such global assumptions.As the Torajamaterial suggests, in the face of tourism (and anthropologicalcelebrity), Torajanscontinue to be active strategists and ingeniouscultural politicians. In the following pages I explore how, in the present context of tourism, nationalism,Christianization, and anthropologicalstudy, Torajanideas aboutthe ancestralauthority of the elite areactively being re-evaluated and contested by lower- rankingmembers of society.While those without claims to aristocraticstatus struggle to propagatetheir own versions of Torajanculture (versions which challengethe elites' sanitized representationsof "Torajawith make-up"),Torajan aristocrats engagein a varietyof enterprisesdesigned to bolstertheir own local pre-eminence. In this contest, anthropologyand tourismfigure prominentlyin both nobles' and commoners'interested versions of cultureand status. Today,politically savvy Torajans recognize anthropology and tourism's potential for validatingand amplifying particular versions of culture.As illustration,this essay describesseveral cases in which anthropologistsand tourists are drawn into the 143 ETHNOLOGYvol. 34 no. 2, Spring 1995, pp. 143-53. ETHNOLOGY, c/o Departmentof Anthropology, The University of Pittsburgh,Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA Copyrighto 1995 The University of Pittsburgh.All rights reserved.
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THE SA'DAN TORAJA: PAST AND PRESENT
In a nation of 185 million, the Sa'dan Toraja people of upland Sulawesi, with whom I conducted over two years of field research in 1984-1985, 1987, and 1991, are a small minority of approximately 350,000. They are marginalized by island geography, religion, and a diffuse power structure. The Toraja's closest neighbors are the lowland Islamicized Makassareseand Buginese peoples, the dominant ethnic groups of the region. In contrast to the highly developed kingdoms of these neighboring peoples, the Toraja never had a centralized political kingdom. In the past, these swidden and wet-rice agriculturalists lived in scattered mountain-top settlements, maintaining social ties through an elaborate system of ritual exchanges (Nooy-Palm 1979). Only with the arrival of the Dutch colonial forces in 1906 were the Sa'dan Toraja united under a single political authority. Several years after the Dutch annexationof the highlands, missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church began proselytizing amongst the Toraja.2Conversion was initially slow but gathered tremendous momentum in the 1950s and 1960s. This growth can be attributedpartially to the effects of Christianschools in the highlands and partially to the newly independentIndonesian government's policy of encourag- ing animistic groups to abandontheir ways of the past and join the folds of a world religion. Today, over 80 per cent of the Sa'dan Torajaare Christiansand the Church is central to the lives and identities of many highlanders. With over 90 per cent of Indonesia's inhabitantsdescribing themselves as Muslims, Torajansare self-conscious of their identity as a Christian minority. Toraja society is hierarchically organized on the basis of age, descent, wealth, and occupation. In precolonial times there were three broad social tiers: the aristocracy, commoners, and slaves.3 Status was determined by birth, although economic aptitude or failure facilitated some degree of social mobility. Slavery is now outlawed in Indonesia and rank is a sensitive topic in Tana Toraja. Internationaland domestic tourism to the Toraja highlands is a relatively recent phenomenon. During the 1950s and early 1960s poor roads and Muslim guerrilla movements made travel in South Sulawesi a risky endeavor. However, in the late 1960s Indonesia's President Suhartobegan actively encouragingthe development of tourism as an industry. After initially concentratingon expanding tourism in Bali, Java, and Sumatra, in 1974 the government began vigorously cultivating and promoting Tana Toraja and other outer island destinations (Spillane 1987). Spotlighting colorful Torajan funeral rituals, eerily carved effigies of the dead, and scenic traditional villages, the touristic marketing of the Toraja was extremely successful. Whereas in 1973 only 422 foreigners voyaged to the highlands, by 1991 over 215,000 foreign and domestic tourists were visiting the region annually.
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Justas tourismin TanaToraja began to developrapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, so did anthropologicalresearch in the highlands.Whereas only threeanthropologists conductedextended research on Torajanculture prior to the mid-1970s(Crystal 1971, 1974, 1989; Koubi 1982; Nooy-Palm 1975, 1979), by the early 1990s many anthropologistsand graduate students had studied Torajan culture from almost every imaginableangle (Adams 1984, 1988, 1991, 1993;Coville 1988, 1989;Hollan 1984, 1988; Hollan and Wellenkamp1994; Tangdilintin1981; Volkman 1985, 1990; Waterson1981, 1984; Wellenkamp1984, 1988; Yamashita1988). The tales of touristsand the writingsof anthropologistshave made Torajans into internationalcelebrities, their culture an entity to be studied,dissected, photographed, and packagedfor export (Adams 1990a). Today's Torajansare inundatedwith outsider images of their culture. Glossy travel brochuresherald the Toraja as "HeavenlyKings" living in a "landwhere time standsstill." Indonesiantelevision shows highlighttraditionally dressed Torajasingers perchedon ornatelycarved Torajarice barns.Tee-shirts are emblazonedwith sketchesof "TorajanWarriors." And postcardssold as far awayas Jakartafeature photographs of Torajatombs and waterbuffalo sacrifices. There even arevideos in Indonesianand English document- ing the "Death Ceremonyof the Torajans"for sale in local shops. In short, contemporaryTorajans are not only ethnicallyself-conscious, but avid consumers, manipulators,and critics of the ethnographicand touristic images of their culture. TORAJAWITH MAKE-UP
My introductionto the politicsof identityin TanaToraja began on my thirdday in the field. Needing a map of the area, I was pointedby several young aspiring Torajanguides in the directionof a smallgeneral store near the market.On entering the store, it immediatelybecame clear that the shopownerhad been told who I was. Greetingme warmly, he asked me to sit and talk with him and his friend about anthropologyin TanaToraja. His companion,an articulateintellectual in his fifties, introducedhimself as the grandsonof Tammu, the co-authorof the Torajan- Indonesiandictionary which I carriedin my bag. As the shopownergestured for his wife to bring some coffee and rice sweets, Tammu'sgrandson leaned forward and beganadvising me aboutwhat should be the focus of my research.In a serioustone he counseled:
As an anthropologist, you should write a book about the real Torajanidentity and history, both the good and the bad. I mean Torajan identity that is authentic and true. I don't like to see Torajan identity presented with make-up to conceal its flaws. These days some people use their writings to cover up the negative, embarrassing things-like slaves-and magnify the positive things. We need a new book to correct all of these portraits of Torajans with make-up ....
Whilesipping coffee, I consideredhis depictionof Torajanswith make-up.Over the previoushalf dozen years the Torajapeople had been abruptlythrust into the spotlight.Tana Toraja Regency had just been declaredthe touristic"prima donna of
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South Sulawesi" by the Indonesian Director General of Tourism. Not only were tourists flocking to the highlands, but so were Indonesian, American, French, and Dutch anthropologists. Clearly, the growing mounds of anthropologicaland touristic literatureon the Torajahad caught this man's attention.He resumed his commentary:
My grandfatherwrote a book that represents the authenticToraja history I'm talking about.4. . . His book tells about the different kinds of slaves [kaunan]and even explains the ritualswhich allow slaves to marry nobles [puangs] and not have their children considered slaves ... how many buffalo they have to sacrifice and all that. But nowadays slaves are simply marrying nobles and declaring their children nobles. That's not right. The more time passes, the more nobles we get!
Shaking his head disapprovingly about all the "false nobles" in Toraja, he pointed to the ubiquitous touristic portrayal of Torajans as "Heavenly Kings" as one of several sources for such "unauthentic"notions of identity:
Many people here like to say our name means kingly people because it makes them seem more majestic. But this invented meaning is like a balloon; you start out with a small piece of rubber and, if you keep inflating it, it will finally burst and have no value at all. ... These days Torajan identity is being inflated and soon it will burst. That's why we must pursue the true Toraja, the Torajawithout make-up.
Clearly, this aristocrat was deeply disturbed that commoners had been particularlyquick to embrace the false etymology promoted in the tourist brochures of Toraja as "Heavenly Kings" or "Kingly People."5 Indeed, while in the field I frequently overheardyoung aspiring Torajanguides of non-noble descent repeat this contrived etymology to visitors. On other occasions, as well, it appearedthat many of these lower-rankingcultural interpreterswere bypassing explanations of Torajan traditions that stressed rank, preferringinstead to communicateto tourists how their art and rituals conveyed Torajans' traditional respect for nature and death. For instance, these younger non-noble guides tended to reject the rank-relatedexplana- tions of carved Torajanancestral house facades that were popular among the nobility (see Adams 1988). Rather, many of these lower-rankingyouths and guides stressed how the abstract carvings on the house facades attested to Torajans' veneration of nature. When, several years later, I reflected on Tammu's grandson's urgings to write a book combatting the inflated Torajan identity, his emphasis on highlighting traditional status distinctions resonated with remarks made by other Torajan elites. Almost all of the elites I knew voiced concerns that they were no longer as esteemed as they had once been. Anxiety about the erosion of hereditary rank distinctions figured prominently in the narratives of Torajan elites and directed much of their social and political activity. While Tammu's grandson cited touristic and anthropologicalimagery as a key source of the erosion of meaningfulrank distinctions, other nobles attributedit to two decades of wage labor opportunities outside the highlands, which offered lower- rankingTorajans new avenues to gain wealth (and hence authority).6Still other elites identified competing systems of authority, such as Christianity and nationalism, as
This content downloaded from 147.126.10.40 on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:12:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MAKING-UPTHE TORAJA? 147 the sources of their own crises of authority.7In short, they all recognizedthat in variousways this discoursewith the wider world was not only promptinglower- rankingTorajans to rethinkthe traditionallocal hierarchy, but facilitating a flattening of indigenousrank distinctions. It is clear to me now that manyTorajan elite were attemptingto solidify their local authorityby invokingthese very forcesthat threatened them. In essence, these Torajanswere no longersimply relying on the authorityof adat (tradition)but were activelyengaged in drawingon the new sources of authorityto bolstertheir elite identities.
ANCHORINGANCESTRAL AUTHORITY: TOURISM AND ANTHROPOLOGY
This articleexplores how one aristocraticTorajan has drawnon the new arenas of tourismand anthropologyto bolsterhis family's authoritativestatus.8 This man, whom I will call Ne' Duma, was a wealthy landowner,a leader of the Toraja ProtestantChurch, and had once servedas a legislativerepresentative of TanaToraja Regency. By the 1980s he had alreadyestablished himself as an acclaimedand respectedauthority on Torajantradition. Upon my arrivalin 1984, when it became knownthat I was interestedin workingin Ne' Duma'sdistrict of TanaToraja, a local governmentofficial insistedthat I live with Ne'Dumaand his family where, as he phrasedit, "all the researchersgo to study."As I laterdiscovered, this government officialwas an adoptedson of Ne' Duma. By steeringme and othersto studywith Ne' Duma, he was, in essence, furtheringNe' Duma'sstatus as an authority. On my third evening in Ne' Duma's household,my host announcedthat we wouldbegin my "lessons."Excusing myself to dig out my list of carefullycompiled questions,I returnedto findNe' Dumaabsorbedly drawing in my notebook.Pushing aside my questions,he gesturedto his drawingand announced,"This is where we start-get out your tape recorder,this is what's important."There in my notebook, he hadsketched an elaboratekinship chart stretching back some 25 generationsto the gods who were said to have descendedon the mountainpeak looming above the village. Exceptthat his male and femalesymbols were reversed,in every way his genealogicalchart could havequalified for an anthropologytextbook. Over the next few weeks Ne' Duma recountedwith verve the deeds of his deified ancestors, offeringme a fundamental,albeit implicit, lesson on his ancestralclaims to authority. Bolsteringtheir ancestral claims to authoritywas a centralconcern for Ne' Duma andhis family. My identityas an anthropologistwas soon drawninto this processof authority-building.When local visitors stopped by the house,Ne' Duma'swife would quicklyintroduce me as the Americananthropologist who had come to studywith Ne' Duma and who would eventuallywrite a book aboutthem. Before long, other elite leadersin the village were suggestingI dropby andinterview them as well. As with Ne' Duma,these interviewsalso tendedto beginwith a genealogicalaccounting of theirancestral authority and their links to celebratedancestral houses (tongkonan).
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Several of these older nobles describedwith great animationthe anthropologybooks they had seen featuring the nobles of the southern realms of Tana Toraja or highlighting aristocrats from the northern Sesean region. Repeatedly, these elite acquaintancesurged me to include their own accounts in my book. As I gradually began to realize, Ne' Duma and his aristocraticfriends envisioned me and the book they imagined I would write as one of several new avenues for shoring up their local authority. Recognizing the power of print, it seemed they feared their own voices of authoritywould be muted without a book of their own. My awareness of this crystallized when a rival aristocratic family from another Torajan district visited our village and my Torajan hosts introduced me as "their anthropologist" who had come to study with Ne' Duma. To this, the visitors respondedthat they, too, had an anthropologistlive with them and write about them. After these guests departed,my Torajanfamily disparagedthe other anthropologist's understandingof Torajan culture and proclaimed that my "book" would be "much bigger and better." After all, I was studying with Ne' Duma. My service as a new-genre markerof Ne' Duma's authoritywas further evinced by my host family's reactionwhen tour guides added me to their itineraryof touristic objects. Following a few happenstanceencounters with tour groups, guides soon began to recognize that, for tourists, my very presence in the field reified their sense of being in a truly remote area, where ancient culture worthy of anthropological study was still very much alive. Accordingly, tour guides ushering their groups throughthe village began stopping at my host's home to introduceme to their guests. My fears that this would exhaust the patience of Ne' Duma's family were unfounded. Quite the contrary, my hosts appeared delighted by the visits and would rush to prepare tea for the tourists. As they served the tea, they would check to make sure the guides had told their guests that I was there studying Toraja culture from Ne' Duma. In short, for them I was not a markerof the exotic but a new kind of marker of Ne' Duma's ancestral authority. Moreover, for my hosts I represented a convenient opportunityto amplify Ne' Duma's status as a celebrated elder to novel foreign audiences.
THE POLITICS OF NAMING TOURIST DESTINATIONS
Not only were some nobles turning to anthropologists as a new avenue for bolstering their pre-eminence, many clearly were seeking to anchor their ancestral authority in the realm of tourism planning as well. Ironically, tourism was the very arena that had hastened the dilution of their traditional symbols of aristocratic affiliation and power. For tourism, in highlighting what were once symbols of elite authority (such as ornately carved ancestral houses and elaborate funerals), has for many Torajans broadenedthese symbols into markersof ethnic affiliation regardless of rank (Adams 1990b). While Ne' Duma never articulated this dimension of his strategy in our discussions, after his death his son shared Ne' Duma's tactics with me. He explained
This content downloaded from 147.126.10.40 on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:12:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MAKING-UP THE TORAJA? 149 that Ne' Duma had been anxiously observing the erosion of the prestige of nobles in his area (known as Kesu') ever since the government seat was established in the southern city of Makale, near the Sangalla adat (custom) region of Tana Toraja. As Ne' Duma saw it, Sangalla nobles and Sangalla adat were overshadowing those of the Kesu' adat area. Ne' Duma's misgivings cemented in 1950 when, following independence, the subdistricts of Tana Toraja Regency were formally established: a Sangalla District (kecamatan)was delineated, but there were no provisions made for a Kesu' District. Ne' Duma recognized that with this new political geography, the name Kesu' would be lost, and with it the authority of the Kesu' nobles. In the early stages of tourism development Ne' Duma saw his opportunity to ensure that the Kesu' name and its prestige lived on. Drawing on his authority as an elected politician, aristocratic leader, and Church elder, Ne' Duma lobbied local government authorities to declare his hamlet the first official "tourist object." Lauding the beauty of the setting, the large cluster of carved houses, and ease of access, Ne' Duma's campaign was successful and he named the newly declared tourist locale Ke'te' Kesu'. His son speculatedthat if Ne' Duma had not the foresight to give the tourist destination the appellationKe'te' Kesu', quite probably the name Kesu' would have little meaning today, and Kesu' nobles would play only a minor role in local politics. Due to Ne' Duma's clever promotion of Ke'te' Kesu' as a tourist site, however, not only ordinary tourists but every Indonesian government official passing through Tana Toraja visits Ke'te' Kesu'. While touring the village, these officials would invariably encounter Ne' Duma or members of his family and would hear their version of Torajan history. Ne' Duma's situation as reigning noble at the first tourist object cemented his position of authorityin the new era of nationalpolitics and tourism. After successful- ly enshrining the name Kesu' on the touristic map of Tana Toraja, Ne' Duma wasted no time in producing written histories of tongkonan Kesu' and in presenting papers at tourism seminars on the historical significance of Kesu', his adat region. By the mid-1980s, Ne' Duma was one of the key lecturers at training sessions for local tour guides. While not all guides echoed Ne' Duma's aristocratic genealogy of celestial ancestry to their tourists,9 they all brought their charges to Ke'te' Kesu', where souvenirs purchasedfrom Ne' Duma's family furtheraugmented the family's wealth. In sum, Ne' Duma's strategy of embracing tourism to bolster his status, in tandem with his activities in the other new arenas of authority(the Christian Church and the national government), was successful. In fact, in 1985, he was ceremonially recognized as the "founding father" of Tana Toraja by Indonesian government officials. Moreover, after Ne' Duma died in 1986, Indonesian dignitaries who had met him on prior trips to the highlands returnedfor his funeral, furtherenhancing his family's local status. It is noteworthythat Ne' Duma's grandfatheremployed a similar strategy in 1919 when he sensed that his authority was being overshadowed by Dutch colonialism. Recognizing that the Dutch were conferring authority on the nobles located nearest their colonial headquartersin the valley, Ne' Duma's grandfatherhad his ancestral
This content downloaded from 147.126.10.40 on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:12:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 150 ETHNOLOGY houseand seat of his authority(known as tongkonanKesu') relocated from its remote site atop a mountainto the valley, clusteringit with severalother ancestral family houses.'?The move, completedin 1927, proved to be a successful scheme for curryinglocal authorityunder colonialism. ENSHRININGANCESTRAL AUTHORITY: TORAJA MUSEUMS
Muchhas been writtenabout the emergenceof Europeanmuseums and their ties to the display of elite power (e.g., Alexander1979; Greenblatt1991). In the Renaissance,a ruler's glory and masteryof the world were communicatedand reinforcedin the visual displayof his collections.Today, in the contextof tourism, Torajanelite arediscovering and borrowing the Westerninstitution of museumswith what appearto be similarmotives. The first Torajanmuseum was opened by a celebratedregal family in the Sangalladistrict. This museum,which housed family heirlooms such as a goldenkris, treasuredtextiles, and carvedwooden bowls and spoons, was soon addedto the touristicmap of TanaToraja. Given its locationoff the main touristtrack and its unpredictablehours, it was not heavilyvisited. Torajans, however, were well aware of its existence and, for Ne' Duma's family, this museumwas a reminderof old rivalriesand ambivalencesbetween Kesu' andSangalla elites. On severaloccasions Ne' Duma'swife and otherfamily members commented on the need for a museum of their own. WhenI returnedto the field in 1989, Ne' Duma'sfamily had created a museum in the heartof Ke'te' Kesu'. Locatedin the family'sornately carved ancestral house (tongkonan),the museumfeatured not only cookingand agricultural implements, but a display of materialmarkers of wealth and power such as prized ritualtextiles, knives, and traditionaleating utensils specially designed for nobles. Aged carvings and a traditionalwarrior's outfit rounded out the display.Significantly, the family chose to name the museumfor a muchbeloved deceasedsister of Ne' Duma, an unmarriedantique dealer without children of her own. Herphotograph and life-sized carvedimage (tau-tau) presided over the museum.Ne' Duma'sfamily envisioned the museumas a way of honoringand perpetuating her memory. Moreover, in establishingthe museum, Ne' Duma's family was not only celebratingthe memoryof this womanbut was stakingits own new-genreclaim to continuedglory, particularlyvis-a-vis their more prestigious Sangalla rivals. On my lastvisit to TanaToraja, several family members pointedly remarked that many more touristspassed through their museum than the Sangallamuseum and reminded me of how the Sangallamuseum was alwayslocked up. Hereagain, we find Torajanelites co-optingimported institutions for localcontests of power.In this case, Ne' Duma's family saw the numberof touristvisitors as theirmeasure of success.
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CONCLUSION
Today's Torajanelites are drawingon new arenasof authorityto bolstertheir eroding local status. In an ironic yet ingeniousfashion, they are anchoringtheir ancestralauthority in preciselythe samephenomena that originally fueled challenges to their local pre-eminence.The Torajanelites' appropriationof tourism and anthropologyunderscores Hobsbawm and Ranger's (1983), Linnekin's(1983, 1992), Keesing's(1989), andothers' observations concerning the continuousreinvention of tradition.In the Torajacase, the traditionof aristocraticauthority is infusedwith the touristicand anthropologicalpolitics of the present. Yet, while the inventionof traditionis relatedto the politics of the present,that present is equallyinfused with the past. Moreover,for the Toraja,not only theirown culturebut the anthropologistsand touriststhey attractall serve as politicalsymbols that can be drawnupon to enhance theirposition vis-a-vis their local rivals. Whilethe Torajanelite cannotcontrol the casheconomy, they aresophisticated in theirability to manipulateglobal powers and institutionslocally (such as tourism,anthropology, and museums), for theirown ends in attemptsto buttress their traditionalauthority. As the Toraja cases teach, anthropologistswould do well to rememberthat our own positions in fieldwork situationsare invariablyentrenched in local discourses of traditionand power politics.
EPILOGUE
It is fittingto end with Ne' Duma'sown final restingplace. Approximatelysix monthsafter his deathin 1986, his familystaged an elaboratepageantry-filled funeral thatattracted thousands of guests, tourists,and dignitaries.11 Following the funeral, Ne' Duma's body was installedin an enormous, lavishly carved cement tomb designedby his son. A life-sized, strikinglyrealistic effigy (tau-tau)of Ne' Duma adornsthe front of the tomb. Encasedin glass andlooming ten feet high, the effigy dominatesthe vista. The tomb and effigy are the first objectstourists see as they descendthe Ke'te' Kesu' village pathto view the traditionalgraves. Today, guides regularlypause at the base of Ne' Duma'stomb to recounthis life storyand exploits. Quitefittingly, although deceased for over eight years, Ne' Dumalives on in all of his glory, narratedevery day by guidesto tourists.
NOTES
1. I am grateful to the NEH seminarparticipants, particularly Lamont Lindstrom and Geoffrey White, for illuminating issues central to this article. Paul Breidenbach and Greg LeRoy gave me useful comments on an earlier draft which was presented at the 1993 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. A Fulbright Fellowship and grants from the University of Washington (Gowen) and Beloit College (Hewlett-Mellon) funded research. I am also grateful to the late Ne' Duma (pseudonym), who taught me much about Toraja culture and political navigation.
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2. See Bigalke (1981) for a delineation of the historical role of the Dutch Reformed Church in fortifying Torajan ethnic consciousness. 3. For a full description of rank in contemporary Tana Toraja, see Adams (1988:51-60), Crystal (1971), and Volkman (1985). 4. The "authenticity"of his grandfather'sbook is partially culled from his experience with a Dutch controller with whom he wrote the dictionary. Interactionwith outsiders and exposure to their writings provide material for reflection about autochthonousidentity. 5. See Adams (1984) for a discussion of the evolution of this false etymology invented by tourism promoters. 6. Volkman (1990) describes how Torajanwage labor migrationhas enabled the inflation of Torajan rituals. 7. For a more detailed discussion of these themes, see Adams (n.d.). 8. See Adams (n.d.) for an exploration of the interplaybetween nationalistrhetoric and aristocratic Torajan strategies for maintainingauthority. 9. In fact, many of the young guides were predominantlycommoners or descendants of slaves and contested touristic explanations that stressed rank distinctions (Adams 1988). 10. Some sources suggest that the move was not voluntary but forced. Whatever the case, the very telling of this version of the story suggests a certain political ingenuity. 11. For an elaboration on how Ne' Duma's funeral exemplifies a reconceptualization of ritual performance in the context of a growing discourse with the wider world, see Adams (1993).
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